Masks
by sara t. fontanini
Summary: Team 7 have been charged with a very dangerous but very important mission. However, when somethign goes terribly wrong, they find themselves trapped behind enemy lines. Will they be able to succeed their mission without having to sacrifice everything, including their very identities? And would they even want to...? Rated M for violence.


Masks

By Sara T. Fontanini

Prologue: Deep Cover

It had begun so simply.

It was the month of the chunin exams, and Team 7 had encountered three ninja of the sound who ahd ambushed the three genin. Eventually, the three spies were defeated and one of them (a stupid hot-head apparently named Zaku) unwittingly revealed that they were working for Orochimaru. Soon, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke (who was recently attacked by Orochimaru) brought the matter to the Hokage, after Kakashi recognised what had been done to Sasuke and brought the matter up to him.

The wizened shinobi revealed that Orochimaru was a dangerous former leaf ninja that went rogue and was absolutely without any sense of morals anymore. He had been thinking of postponing the chinin exams in case of more spies, but then thought of different plan.

He told Team 7 that this could be a perfect opportunity to not only prove themselves as shinobi, but also to gain valuable intel on a dangerous enemy of the Leaf. Naruto wholeheartedly accepted without thinking, Sasuke nodded in affirmation and determination, trying to hide the weird mark left on his body by Orochimaru; and Sakura just lamely went along with it.

The plan was simple: Team 7 would impersonate the three Sound nin they had captured and then follow Orochimaru to his base. From there, they could work as grunts, gathering information until they deemed they ahd enough to deal with the Sound and Orochimaru once and for all.

Though Naruto and Sakura were kind of unsure about such an underhanded plan, especially during a time of peace, Sasuke accepted firmly. So it was decided: Sasuke would impersonate Dosu, the leader, because of his superior ninjutsu and tactical abilities, Sakura was to take Zaku's place, being smart enough to at least follow Sasuke's lead and copy Zaku's mannerisms, and Naruto...

Naruto was a bit shocked that he had to impersonate Kin, the sole female of the spies, but the Hokage had explained that it was due to Naruto's 'impulsive nature', and all signs pointed to Kin being the lowest ranked member of the spies, not having any definably unique skills and thus allow Sasuke and Sakura to take the lead and deal with the enemy and all Naruto had to do was attempt to 'act the part' and not make any waves.

It had started so simply too...

Of course, in order to maintain the lie that they were the spies and ensure the real Sound ninja didn't ruin anything, they had to forcibly henge the three ninja into their respective impersonator and knock them, placing them in the hospital under the pretence that they had taking injury during the exam and thus fail it.

It was quite a shock to them when Kabuto, who they believed to be a harmless Leaf nin who had failed the exam multiple times, was actually Orochimaru's right hand man and their contact with the mysterious enemy. And it was just when they came in contact with him and found out his true allegiance did it fall apart.

The Hokage was killed by Orochimaru and the village was under attack, but they couldn't step in to help or else the whole plan would fail, and the Hokage had ordered them to not fail the mission under any circumstance.

So they kept up the charade, and continued the mission, leaving their home behind, the only one with any knowledge of their mission dead, for the Hokage had believed that the less people who knew of the mission, the bigger its likelihood of success. Not even Kakashi was informed, and only a few high ranking ANBU knew of only the base knowledge of the plan and not the exact details.

And as of the three spies, they had failed their mission and were fearful of their master's wrath, so they decided to lay low, keep the disguises forced upon them, and gather as much data as they could, to at least save face and hopefully gain back Orochimaru's trust.

How foolish. It had all began so simply...

_God. Dammit. Here I go, starting yet another story begin I finished any others, mostly because I want to get my ideas down before i forget them._

_So yeah, I was reading through the TV Tropes page for "Becoming The Mask", and had this story idea. I had the idea a long time ago, but reading through the page reminded me so I decided to readjust the story a bit and so I present what you now see here._

_And I apologise for both the shortness of the prologue and the EXTREMELY unoriginal title._

_I hope you enjoy it, and please comment._


End file.
